Got an email that went directly to spam. I had to laugh upon reading it. Some idiot thought I would go buy them $100 of bitcoin to avoid an embarrassing situation regarding computer use. They claimed to be "calculating" and to "never make mistakes".
Further, their claim stated they had entered my computer using an undetectable trojan virus. They allegedly could take control of my computer's camera, microphone, and any other devices connected in my home network.
Well, let's walk through this, shall we?
1. They have obviously not calculated enough because they made a few mistakes.
2. I'm not quite a total dunce regarding computer use. If I know a few things their claims are easily dispelled.
3. Here's what I know.
I have no camera or microphone attached to my computer. I use a Linux operating system & for myself, setting up a camera and microphone just seems too much hassle. It can be done, sure, I just don't see much need.
They have a very slim likelihood of entering my computer unnoticed or undetected. Why? My system has been forensically hardened. I'll give a brief listing of the general idea below.
I use app-armor software, the operating system come already pre-configured to use. Open source tripwire is also installed, F-Prot antivirus/malware software is installed, rootkit hunter is installed, clamav is installed. Tripwire would alert me to configuration and system files being altered by anyone aside from me. Rootkit hunter would do likewise and also send a report of anyone attacking with an attempt to gain root access.
The two antivirus software are both "active" core meaning they update from virus databases through appropriate security experts. One does daily, the other hourly. This person claimed their trojan kept updating every four hours to remain undetected. *smh* Have to get up earlier than that.
A trojan used to make bash unsecure was fixed inside 15 minutes of being spotted in the "wild". IBM made sure of it for Red Hat Linux, who ported it out for all Linux distributions. I had the newly patched and update bash in under 10 minutes of reading about the virus, it would have been 5, but the key developer needed to test it.
As to attacking other devices? Well, my computer also resides behind a firewall and recently learned a VPN thanks to our ISP. My point is, there's no "playing around" regarding the security of our gear. I knew this fool was just that, a fool.
Look into your own security measures and become aware of the system/s in place. Once you are, you can easily spot bullshit scams like this and not be concerned by ransomware attempts.
Further, their claim stated they had entered my computer using an undetectable trojan virus. They allegedly could take control of my computer's camera, microphone, and any other devices connected in my home network.
Well, let's walk through this, shall we?
1. They have obviously not calculated enough because they made a few mistakes.
2. I'm not quite a total dunce regarding computer use. If I know a few things their claims are easily dispelled.
3. Here's what I know.
I have no camera or microphone attached to my computer. I use a Linux operating system & for myself, setting up a camera and microphone just seems too much hassle. It can be done, sure, I just don't see much need.
They have a very slim likelihood of entering my computer unnoticed or undetected. Why? My system has been forensically hardened. I'll give a brief listing of the general idea below.
I use app-armor software, the operating system come already pre-configured to use. Open source tripwire is also installed, F-Prot antivirus/malware software is installed, rootkit hunter is installed, clamav is installed. Tripwire would alert me to configuration and system files being altered by anyone aside from me. Rootkit hunter would do likewise and also send a report of anyone attacking with an attempt to gain root access.
The two antivirus software are both "active" core meaning they update from virus databases through appropriate security experts. One does daily, the other hourly. This person claimed their trojan kept updating every four hours to remain undetected. *smh* Have to get up earlier than that.
A trojan used to make bash unsecure was fixed inside 15 minutes of being spotted in the "wild". IBM made sure of it for Red Hat Linux, who ported it out for all Linux distributions. I had the newly patched and update bash in under 10 minutes of reading about the virus, it would have been 5, but the key developer needed to test it.
As to attacking other devices? Well, my computer also resides behind a firewall and recently learned a VPN thanks to our ISP. My point is, there's no "playing around" regarding the security of our gear. I knew this fool was just that, a fool.
Look into your own security measures and become aware of the system/s in place. Once you are, you can easily spot bullshit scams like this and not be concerned by ransomware attempts.